Tuesday, August 19, 2014

This was a reward from a Kickstarter thing I donated to after seeing that Caanan Grall had worked on it. Like his webcomic, Max Overacts, this contains an entertaining ensemble. It's fun watching the kids battle it out while the adults are oblivious. Sure, that's been done before but it's fun here. And then there's the heart touching stories involving not fitting in or adoption. The book covers a wide range of emotions. This book exceeded my expectations and I recommend checking it out.

A well crafted story with some beautiful art. You don't really appreciate it until you get to the end and in the grand scheme of things it raises more questions and issues for the Elephantmen series than it answers but it's also a decent jumping on point. Though I did realize while reading this series that I missed issue 50 which hasn't been included in the collections (that I know of). Elephantmen continues to be on my recommended reading list.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

This book feels a bit weird for me in that the main story seems to be moving slowly throughout the series while you can't really say that nothing's been happening. Perhaps that's partly due to the large cast of characters each being given time to tell their stories. But it's growing into something very interesting. The graphic scenes sometimes feel a little unnecessary or at least they could be cut back a bit. But it's a well written series with very intriguing characters. I don't think it makes my "recommended reading" list, it's more "worth checking out if you're looking for something new/different."

Friday, August 08, 2014

In my opinion Astro City may be the best written superhero comic out there at the moment and I'd put it high on the list of best written ongoing comics, period. My only issue with this book is that maybe the art lets me down in the odd panel but the attention to detail and excellent overall storytelling makes up for any possible deficiencies. Astro City remains near the top of my recommended reading list with this excellent volume.

Sunday, August 03, 2014

Took my mother to see Guardians of the Galaxy today. Definitely not cinematic
genius but quite a lot of fun. A lot of humour and some fun action. I
wouldn't say that Rocket and Groot "steal the show" but yeah, they are
great. And yes, my mother really enjoyed it. Definitely recommend checking it out.

Saturday, August 02, 2014

I was a huge wrestling fan back in the day. I really got into it in the early 80's, just before the Hogan/Andre feud started. So I was very eager to read this book. It contained mostly stories that wrestling fans have heard in other arenas. In fact, the notes even indicate that they were stories taken from interviews wrestlers did. It didn't feel like the book really delved into who Andre was. There were some parts where they go over the pain that Andre was in, the health issues and surgery, and how uncomfortable he was living in a world built for people much smaller than him. Yet it always seemed to be glossing over things. The simpler artwork helped in some ways but I found some pages (seemingly more so early on in the book) had really bad layouts. And sometimes I found myself confused as to who was actually being depicted in a discussion as someone who was on the left in one panel suddenly was on the right of the panel seemingly facing the opposite way (lack of backgrounds in some of the discussion panels weren't helping there). Overall, I wasn't that impressed with this book. It definitely doesn't make my recommended reading list, even to wrestling fans. I wouldn't say to avoid it, but don't expect much out of it.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

I expected an emotional story but I didn't expect such a high quality comic book. The storytelling is great and it makes effective use of the medium. At times I felt like I've seen some of the story before (especially after just watching the movie: The Butler) but this time it's about a guy who actually lived it and that makes me feel a bit more connected in this instance. This book falls into my "recommended reading" pile but not really my "must read" pile. Definitely worth checking out.